I have no problem with the speed of the hit. I don't expect any athlete to let up. I do have a problem with the shoulder directly contacting the head.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

Exactly Richards made no attempt to let up he was trying to hit him in the head without question. Booth should have had his head up but Richrads tried to ko him and he did.

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just call me Brad

Twitter @BUrbanowicz13

Richards caught Booth in the jaw area, there was no deliberate attempt to go after his head.

If it was an elbow or a hit higher up, like nearer the top of the helmet, then it was an attempt to injure.

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My rules change solutions:

1. Drastically reduce the body armor the players are wearing.
2. End the instigator farce
3. Add a penalty shot for any match penalty

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Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way. I can't wait to look in the mirror, 'cause I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doin' the best that I can.

Why should intent have anything to do with it? Accidental / incidental hits to the head cause more concussions that intentional ones.

Excellent ideas to start with. I'd love to see more, but would be happy if they started with 1 and 2 at least.

Well with an intent, that player should not play for a very long time.

Accidental, well shit happens. But a hit to the head deserves a suspension at least. But not as severe, maybe min 2 game depending on how badly injured the player is and such, but accidental contact happens.

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I just don't like the idea of the punishment being determinate on the severity of the injury. I mean, you can throw a intentional flying elbow at one guy's head and he'll get right back up, but an incidental bump to another guy's head could give him a concussion.

There should be a baseline penalty for any blow to the head, intentional or not. If the hit is deemed intentional, add on more.

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mechaphil

Well I said a minumum of two games at least for hits to the head, but I'll agree if deemed intentional, more games.

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If it can be of the same protective quality fine, but I'd never ever dream of giving up my RBK 5K Pads for the junk they used in the 70s.

Sure I look like a line backer in my pads, but I also get up from blocking shots that are rifled from the 13oz sticks with banana curves some of these people are using.

I guess it's 6 pounds of one, half dozen of another, but in my opinion, I'll take the body armor on the stars over the washcloths they wore in the 70's, due to the increase in velocity on the shots, and the frequency of the shots rising as compared to yester-year.

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"She's like plan C after an 18 pack"

Squanto 7/27/2010

...the shots are pretty much the same speed - Dennis Hull (Bobby's brother) was radar-clocked at 110 mph.

Al Iafrate, similarly popped off 100-105 mph shots.

The level of disrespect, opportunism and mercenary behavior that a player chooses to display toward fellow-players has nothing to do with pad-size, the speed of the game, or the tendency to hit harder.

It has EVERYTHING to do with accepting a pattern of behavior that equates "eliminating a player from a game", to that of "ensuring a win".

If it becomes accepted practice to injure a team's top scorer (or any other player, for that matter - including goaltenders) in order to win the game, then players (regardless of ability) will always have targets on their backs...

And the best will always be targeted first - Be it the head, or the knees.

And THAT is unsportsmanlike and cowardly. It's infantile to want to "win" a game in this manner, at the expense of a fellow-player's career, or perhaps his life.

It is a "madness" that must be punished severely. It is recklessness and "criminal negligence"...

In other words, nothing wrong with you murdering someone with your body armor so long as when you dive in front of slap shots your well protected. I bet putting fiberglass casts on your forearms would help, too...

Equipment: 50% weapon, 50% protection.

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Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way. I can't wait to look in the mirror, 'cause I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doin' the best that I can.

Not at all, what I'm saying is, it's not the equipment, it's the person wearing it. If it had the same protective quality, and was smaller, fine by me, would probably provide an increased range of motion, which allows for greater creativity with the puck, which I'm all for.

The players Ice pointed out were the exceptions, not the rule. I would hate to see a player like Myers, Kronwall, Kaleta, Goose ect injured because they are diving infront of shots like they normally do, but are less protected because players like Richards, Avery, ect ruin it for others.

I never have, and never will condone intentionally going headhunting, and think that anyone who does, should sit 10-25 games. I don't see where your assumption comes from there; because about 2 pages back I stated, you never ever ever ever ever hit someone in the head, PERIOD.

I personally think the league protects the stars way too much, and someone is going to wind up with a broken neck from these hits to the head, and that's what it's going to take for the league to wake the fuck up. It's a joke that players like Pronger have been getting away with this shit for years. Hell Scott Stevens ended Lindros' prime with a hit to the head. Chris Neil jacked up Drury a few years ago with a similar hit. Colin Campbell makes 3 pages of excuses as to why someone wasn't suspended for this hit, but you damn well know that if it was a player like Mair that dropped that hit on a player like Crosby or Ovechkin, Mair would be sitting a minimum of 10 games.

This leagues front office from a competition stand point is quickly becoming one of the worst in all of professional sports. They are getting as bad as the NFL when it comes to protecting their "golden boys" so to speak. It's infuriating, and saddening to see this occur, because like I said, someone is going to wind up getting killed out there before they do something.

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"She's like plan C after an 18 pack"

Squanto 7/27/2010

The false sense of security you gain from all that armored equipment creates the excessive risk taking that causes major injuries to yourself and others. You're willing to stick your neck in front of shots you would never consider standing in the way of if you didn't have that suit of armor on. You are willing to fly into checks, the goal crease and the boards with reckless abandon knowing you are plated with titanium from head to toe, and you are not bothering to worry if you glide around the ice with your eyes on the puck instead of the players around you because the bullet proof equipment under your uniform tells you you'll be fine.

Well, as we see today, the injuries are just as frequent and just as scary as they were in the 60's and 70's...in some ways even worse. As long as players are suited up like they are preparing for a joust instead of a hockey game that will continue to be the case.

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Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way. I can't wait to look in the mirror, 'cause I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doin' the best that I can.

It all comes back to accountability, and there are certain rules in hockey that have eliminated it, particularly the instigator penalty, and the widespread use of the Visor.

Players think they can get away with more cheap play because they are protected by the instigator penalty and the visor, they are not accountable.

Perhaps the influx of NHL players accross the pond to the KHL and their influence is a good thing. There are many aspects to the European style of play that I find distasteful, namely the amount of illegal stick work and the use of the visor. I don't mean to bash on European players, I think they bring a lot of good things to the NHL as well (like explosiveness and creativity, it's no secret the top three NHLers are all European Malkin, Ovechkin, and Kovalchuk). I don't think europen hockey has the same rules of accountability that North American hockey does, it's just a different game.

I think eliminating the visor will send the message that no one is protected from the consequences of illegal stick work, and removing the instigator will send the message that no one is immune to the consequences of cheap play and intent to injure.

It used to be that ANY cheap play, whether it caused injury or not was dealt with. Now the current rules almost make it so that it isn't worth it to respond to a cheap shot artist until one of your guys goes down. It's not hard to see the error in thinking there.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

Protecting the stars will only make the league more profitable. I'm all for protecting the stars because it draws in more money and draws in more fans.

I mean there should be no line at all protecting all players thoguh and every player should get fair treatment.


Protect the stars, but protect the game itself and the players playing it.

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